Smile in Your Sleep
by lapizlazuli
Summary: A tale of jealousy, lies and ultimately death. Cliff has reason to believe that he's not the only one Ann's spending time with. rated K for murder Oneshot


Just a oneshot to reflect my mood, based on the song Smile in Your Sleep by Silverstein

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Smile in Your Sleep

Cliff loved Ann. Some days he felt as if she was really there with him, emotionally, not just physically; those were the days when she would smile at him and her pale blue eyes seemed to speak to him, and on those days she didn't need to tell him she loved him. Then there were the other days, the days when those same eyes would speak unemotionally of deceit, she would still smile, but in a different way somehow, then she would say those words that seemed to make his stomach fill with acid, and bubble like lava. Words that should have put ease into his heart made it sink and ache, fragile as it was. _"I won't let you down,"_

Those words were a joke.

Whoever says those words is obviously lying, trying to hide something from you. If you ask anyone a question that demands that answer, and they don't even hesitate to say the words: that's when you know it's a lie, because they haven't really thought about it. But everyone lets you down sometimes, it's the nature of being human and imperfect, you know that someone really cares if they say: _"I really hope I never let you down, I'll try my hardest not to." _

They lay in bed together, Cliff watched Ann as she slept, her light lids shut tightly over her eyes, she was smiling brightly, as though thinking of someone in her sleep, as though completely at ease with herself. Was she thinking about him? If she really was, wouldn't she just wake up and be with him in person?

"Jack…" She whispered softly and Cliff felt his heart beat quickly, adrenaline pumping through his veins. His brown eyes widened and he felt so physically sick, sick to look at her, sick to not look at her. He wanted to wake her, to shout at her, no, to scream at her and to demand her reasons for uttering that farmer's name. Maybe there were reasons other than infidelity? Maybe he had just jumped to conclusions, what proof did he really have? After all their time they had spent together! She couldn't do that to him, she couldn't just go off with someone else, could she? Maybe they hadn't been perfect, but they'd been pretty damn near close, she had told him that herself before. They were so alike in every way, they laughed at the same things, they loved the same things, they could talk for hours until the early hours of the morning.

_"We're the same, you and I…" _She told him when they met, that cute smile on her face that spoke of open vulnerability, she was finding a connection between them to strengthen their bond, she had to love him.

But they weren't the same.

She had to know that they were so different, she'd lived her cushy inn life and he'd been kicked out by his parents and forced to flee to a remote forsaken island, where he could still barely afford to eat. He had heard that there was a job at the vineyard a while back, but apparently Jack had taken it… Jack had taken everything from him. But hadn't she always told him that everything would work out in the end? It somehow didn't seem possible, was she right? Or was this just another one of her lies?

"Ann… wake up… I think we need to talk." He said bravely, he hated confronting her, but he knew he deserved better than her lies. He was met by her bright blue eyes, shimmering with false innocence, glittering like hard sapphires.

"What is it?" She asked with a curious curve on her lips, cocking her head to the side and he breathed in deeply, trying not to let all the angry words and the painful questions tumble out of his mouth all at once.

"What's going on between you and Jack?" He asked after taking a large lungful of air, her eyes stopped glittering, they seemed even paler now.

"Oh… I… I'm so sorry Jack…" She whispered before realising her mistake. He flinched, the ultimate insult. "Cliff… I meant Cliff… I'm so sorry."

The tears began to fall slowly, and he just couldn't take it, he hurried out of the inn.

When he returned he found her asleep on the soft, white linen of her pale blue bedroom, the same colour as her beautiful eyes. He looked down at her, golden hair released from its plaits and flowing across the bed like a river of fire. There was a smile on her pink lips still, and he couldn't believe that she would think about Jack, even after everything. He headed over to his own room, which he hadn't slept in for a while, as a result the sheets were perfectly straight and smooth, he searched beneath the mattress where he still kept his protection in case he had to leave. A long silver knife glinted in the yellow lights of the inn, he took it by its wooden handle and headed over to his lovers room.

He took another deep breath and plunged the knife into her, she woke with a start, her pale blue eyes wide open with shock.

"Cliff…" she choked, gasping for air.

"So you know my name now…" He noted bitterly, he took the knife and stabbed it into her again, warm, maroon blood was pouring from her wounds now. He went to the bathroom and washed his hands, wiping down the handle too and placing it in her own small bloodied hands. There were the same pale blue eyes, staring up at him without accusation.

They never suspected him when they found her, he found that rather odd, poor Cliff lost his faithful girlfriend. They actually believed that a girl so full of life would kill herself, how naïve. There she was, smiling in the blue dress they had wrapped her in to sleep for eternity, and they still believed she'd committed suicide. She lay in her deathbed, her coffin, and as the finally words of the eulogy fell from Pastor Carter's honest lips he let out a choking sob.

She was lying in her bed. Lying again. How fitting.

_-LapizLazuli-_


End file.
